


How It Works

by LithiumBlossom



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Action/Adventure, Canon Compliant, Drama, Fix-It, Force-Sensitive Finn (Star Wars), Jedi Training (Star Wars), Kyber Crystals (Star Wars), Planet Ilum (Star Wars), Post-Canon, Redemption, Rescue Missions, Road Trips, Starkiller Base (Star Wars), Stormtrooper Rebellion
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-17
Updated: 2020-11-03
Packaged: 2021-03-03 21:15:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,488
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24772246
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LithiumBlossom/pseuds/LithiumBlossom
Summary: The war against the First Order is allegedly over. However Finn still has a lot of unfinished business. In a Galaxy rich with opportunities he has more choices ahead of him than he has ever had to face before.
Kudos: 6





	1. Liberator

**Author's Note:**

> Finn deserved better
> 
> First debuted at Glasgow Open Mic Fan Fic on the 16th June 2020.

Finn rehearsed the words he needed to say over and over again in his head. His life and the lives of thousands of others would depend upon them so it was imperative he got them right.

The dropship shuddered and dipped suddenly as it was buffeted by flak outside, equipment rattled and clattered in their fastenings at the movement. The lights in the troop compartment flickered although most of the occupants barely reacted. They had experienced it too many times before. It had been a long war, even in this supposed victory.

“Poe, how are the turbolaser emplacements looking?” he asked over his commlink.  
“Don’t worry buddy,” the warmth of Poe’s voice still came through despite the distortion of the comm signal, “Just mopping up the last of them now. You’re all clear for landing.”  
“Thanks Poe, I’ll try take it from here.”  
“See you on the other side Finn,” there was a pause before he added, “And may the Force be with you.”  
Finn felt himself smile at the send-off. Despite everything demanding Poe’s attention these days he was still willing to help out his friends. Particularly as it meant getting into a cockpit in combat conditions again, Finn had been worried that the carnage at Exogol had left a mark on him but Poe’s boundless optimism had let him recover.

Finn glanced across the troop compartment at where Rose was sitting.  
“Is this the part where you ask me if I’m still sure about this?” He asked her.  
Rose shook her head, “Nope. I already know you are. Besides, I was with you on the Supremacy. I know you can do this.”  
Some Resistance members had been puzzled about why he needed an engineer along on an operation like this. He had defended it by reminding everyone how quick a thinker she was which would be needed if the operation went sour. That was a half-truth. She was as much a steadying presence as Poe flying cover for them in his X-wing. He was going to need it; most people saw this as a suicide mission but he stood up for with all his conviction. He needed to do this, and not just for himself. The idea had been gnawing at him for over a year and crystallised at Kef Bir. It was the only way to truly end this war, the only way for any lasting peace.

They shared a brief smile and Finn felt his nerves settle into warm certainty again. Her words to him on Crait crossed through his thoughts again.  
_This is how we win. Not fighting what we hate but by saving what we love._  
It seemed a fitting motto for this mission.

“Coming in for our final approach,” the dropship pilot called out from her cockpit, “Looks like there’s a lot of stormtroopers out there.”  
“I’m counting on it,” he called back, unbuckling himself and standing up from the crash couch.  
“I mean there is a _lot_ of stormtroopers out there, sir.”  
“Good,” his smile turned a little brittle, “That’s good.”  
Rose gave him a thumbs up.

The shuttle shook again, this time as it touched down on a durasteel landing platform. The boarding ramp lowered with a hiss allowing light, and the smell of pollution, to flood in. He counted up inside his head, using his training to predict how long it would be for the stormtroopers training their blasters on the hatch to lower their guard. Finn inhaled deeply and stepped out onto the landing platform.

He walked slowly with his hands in the air. He saw dozens of stormtroopers taking cover behind hastily assembled barricades pointing blaster rifles at him. Their impassive white helmets seemed both deeply familiar and utterly repulsive to him. He could feel human eyes turned on him beneath glossy black lenses. Most other people would not pick up on that but he had been on the other side of one of those helmets once. He knew what the First Order was trying to hide with them, what they were trying to strip away from their wearers. A senior officer had the privilege of being unhelmeted, wearing a black uniform and cap instead. He was safely at the back of the First Order lines.

This was one of the First Order’s main hold-outs on Coruscant. They had dug themselves in deeply, the symbolism of holding onto the former Imperial capital was important to them. Particularly now that their control of the Galaxy was crumbling with the loss of much of their senior command and the outbreak of popular uprisings. The bastion was solidly fortified and commanded a malignant presence over the upper city. Finn knew as well there were others across the planet.

“I’m here to discuss surrender,” Finn called out, making sure all present could hear his voice.  
The First Order officer puffed himself up at that. He was an older man, likely served under the Empire before. No wonder he had an inflated ego.  
“Very well then, allow me to-“ he began, voice filled with smug superiority.  
“No, not you,” Finn cut off sharply, “I’m talking to them.”  
He swept his arms across the landing platform at the stormtroopers. Most remained in ready positions but none fired. A few turned their helmeted heads to their comrades. The officer’s mouth moved wordlessly, his brain struggling to process the unexpected direction events had taken.  
“I am Finn. The First Order used to call me FN-2187. I was a stormtrooper like you. But I discovered I had a choice. A choice to stop being the First Order’s puppet and walk away, to help other people. To be my own being.”

“Enough of this,” the officer bellowed, his face ruddy, “Shoot this traitor immediately.”  
None of the stormtroopers obeyed. Some had even lowered their rifles to listen to Finn. He could see them looking to their comrades over their oppressor. Finn knew they would be on their intra-squad comm network instead. A debate that the helmetless officer would be ignorant to.  
Finn raised his voice over the officer’s shouting, “I am not your enemy and this is not your war. It is the First Order that is using you, treating you like a disposable asset. All your life you were indoctrinated to believe you have no choice. But you do. Drop your weapons and walk away and this war ends.”

An image jolted through Finn’s mind like a sudden electrical current of him being struck by a blaster bolt fired by the officer whom he had turned his attention from. Time seemed to slow as Finn turned his gaze to the First Order officer already raising their sidearm blaster pistol as him. A wave of calm washed through him. His legs moved before he truly registered it, side stepping where the blaster bolt was meant to be even as the red blast spat from the muzzle of the weapon. He should have been an easy target but impossibly the shot missed. He felt the heat of the bolt searing past him, mere centimetres away. It harmlessly struck the side of the dropship instead, leaving a smoking impact.

A second blaster shot echoed around the landing platform. The officer widened their eyes and then fell limply to the deck, a plume of smoke rising from his back. Finn’s head snapped along the bolt’s trajectory and saw a stormtrooper with their blaster raised, steam rose from the muzzle in waves due to the firer’s shaking hands.  
“It’s okay,” Finn lowered his voice reassuringly, walking slowly towards them, “You did the right thing. The First Order can’t hurt you anymore.”  
Shaking, fumbling hands went to their helmet and tore it off. Beneath was the face of a young woman, her hair cut to a regulation buzz and with wide, overwhelmed eyes.  
“How did you do that?” she asked quietly, her voice ragged, “He had you dead to rights.”  
The truth still seemed unreal to him and he felt his guts coil uncomfortably but he put on a smile anyway for her and put a steadying hand on her shoulder, “Just a trick I picked up from a friend.”

Moments later more helmets and weapons clattered to the ground as they were discarded. Finn looked around him. Where before he had been surrounded by stormtroopers he was now surrounded by lost and confused men and women much his own age. Some simply slumped down where they were or turned to tend to their comrades but most looked to Finn. His heart suddenly felt too big for his chest as he was flooded by a potent blend of emotions at the sight. Nostalgia, pride, relief, concern… His face contorted in a grin of happiness and he felt tears begin to prick at the corners of his eyes.

“What now?” one of them asked, likely a squad leader based on his black pauldron.  
“Now we give others the same chance,” Finn struggled to temper down his elation, he needed to support his siblings now, “How many more stormtroopers are based here? How many First Order officers?”  
“A battalion however there are five times more stormtroopers than officers,” the squad leader reported.  
Finn nodded, doing the tactical equations, “Alright. I want to liberate as many of our brothers and sisters as possible. They deserve the same chance I did. You don’t have to come with me, I brought medics on the shuttle if anyone wants to sit this one out. You’ve already done something very brave.”  
To his pride many of the former stormtroopers gathered around him, rallying at the prospect. A handful lingered, overcome with internal strife. Resistance medics led by Rose rushed from the dropship to tend to those in shock and struggling with their indoctrination.  
“See, told you it would work out,” Rose whispered softly to him as she took place by his side.  
Finn looked over all his comrades putting their faith in him, his head spinning with emotion. He wanted to hug each and every one of them right there. The sense of responsibility focused him again.  
“We better get moving then,” he called out, putting authority and confidence into his voice, “We still have a lot of people to liberate”


	2. Unburdened

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Finn enjoys a rare moment of quiet before he reveals something long overdue.

Finn stood motionless at the window watching out over the cityscape before him. The stillness was a luxury. He had been still before in stormtrooper indoctrinations and parades before standing at attention like a statue while subjected to a grandiose speech by a superior. Those had been stillness enforced upon his, a harsh and constricting thing that insidiously tried to instil powerlessness in him. Even in the year since he left the First Order he had lacked the choice, there was simply no time when there was always a mission needing to be done. Whatever waiting he had had then was restless and tense, always feeling the jaws of destiny about to close in upon him. 

Now there was no pressures, no orders and fires to be put out. This was for Finn and Finn alone. To do nothing because he had the time and choice to do it. Here in General Organa’s suites in her former Coruscant abode he finally felt safe. 

His only movement was his eyes roaming over the view before him. In the previous year he had crossed the Galaxy and seen amazing sights however he had never seen a planet quite like Coruscant. Great towers and spires thrust into the darkening sky from horizon to horizon. They jostled close to each other for attention, lines of glittering traffic threading between them. Finn’s gaze travelled downwards towards the dizzying chasms between them. The glow that emanated from these trenches was testament to the countless trillion of people making there lives there.   
Finn’s mind reeled thinking about them all. The countless species and cultures intermingling. Everything needed to support them. There must have been so many stories there, all intersecting through each other like the speeder lanes through the starscrapers before him. Maybe it was time to go out into the world and move among them.  
Since the liberation there had been street parties and celebrations across the planet. Firework displays lit up the sky. Propaganda posters and surveillance equipment had been torn down. The last few holdouts had seen stormtrooper uprising inspired by his heroics a few days earlier. There was even a parade planned for a few times time.  
He wondered how many of their lives would improve now that the First Order had been deposed and how many would carry on as ever would. His eyes had been opened to the injustice that had thrived even outside of the one great evil he had known. Now the future was uncertain and there was questions about how to even rebuild the Republic. Thoughts of his friends rose to the forefront of his mind and he felt the comforting warmth rise in his chest. They had all come from tragic and harsh places but together they had come out stronger, kinder. There was hope. A better Galaxy was possible. A smile spread across his face. 

We’re going to fight for what we love. 

His quarters’ door chime sounded out and roused him from his thoughts.   
“It’s open,” he called out.   
The door hissed open and Rose walked in, carrying a datapad in her hands. Finn smiled to see her, thinking back to how far they had come since they first met in the bowels of the Raddus. Gone was the withdrawn engineer standing in the shadows of others. Instead she had become more confident and forthright as she discovered more of her potential.   
“Hey Rose,” he greeted her, giving her a friendly nod. 

She returned the smile, “Thought I’d drop by and give you this.”  
Rose proffered her datapad to him, “It’s the debriefing report on the stormtrooper defectors you liberated here on Corsucant.”  
Finn’s heart leapt for a second, a surge of excitement and concern passing through him. He had taken a great interest in his siblings, spending hours with them nearly overwhelmed by emotion as he reassured them that they were now safe.   
“Thank you,” he said trying not to snatch the datapad off her in his urgency.

Quickly he skimmed through the information, eager to see the big picture. His mood settled into a cold intensity as he processed it. His siblings were going to be scattered across the Galaxy to various treatment centres to undergo therapy. Although many of them were physically well some were still suffering trauma from their indoctrination. Their biometrics had also been taken in the hopes of discovering their identities. Many of them could even have families to return to, particularly as the First Order deliberately targeted the children of notable figures among the former Rebellion.   
Gradually Finn realised that Rose was looking at him, a soft smile on her face. 

“Good news?” she asked hopefully.   
“Maybe,” he sighed lightly, suddenly tired, “The First Order really hurt a lot of them but at least they have a chance at a real life now. Hopefully despite everything going on they’ll get the treatment they need but there’s a lot of hurting people out there.”  
“Yeah,” Rose agreed reluctantly, “The whole Galaxy is a mess right now. But you have to remember Exegol, there are still good people out there who will help when they can.”  
Finn nodded along with that, leaning back against the nearby table. Her words had dulled the edge of his fears again. Rose had a talent for that.   
“We spent our whole lives at war. Peace will take some getting used to,” 

“What do you want to do now then Finn?” she asked, “Look for your family?”  
The question shook him. He had not thought about the idea much, he had assumed that they would either be impossible to find. Or worse, find out the First Order had killed them. That would shatter him like frozen carbonite. Either way, he had built his own family around himself now.   
Finn shook his head, throat tight as the words were reluctant to emerge, “No. There’s something else I want to do. Something big.”  
Rose quirked an eyebrow and cocked her head intrigued.  
“There’s something I’ve wanted to tell you for a while, something to tell all of you. I just never knew how to spit it out. Every time I did some Star Destroyer would drop out of hyperspace or a giant worm would try to eat us. C’mon, watch this.”

He got up and walked over to the counter. Finn closed his eyes and focused, he extended a hand. The water decanter sitting on the counter shuddered, ripples emanating through the clear liquid. Then slowly and surely it began scraping across the table by itself. Haltingly it lifted off the table and slowly made it’s way to Finn’s outstretched hand. Finn exhaled from the effort, gripping the decanter tightly.   
“You can use the Force?” Rose called out excited and snapped her fingers, “I knew it!”  
“You knew I was Force sensitive all this time?”  
Rose fixed him with a chiding look and rolled her eyes, “You’re always having strange feelings about things which always turn out to be right. You always seem to know how Rey and Poe are no matter where they are. It doesn’t take a genius to work it out.”  
“She then hastily added, “Maz Kanata may have also said a few cryptic things about you too.”  
Finn gave a bashful grin, hanging his head as he felt relief at losing a burden he never knew he had been carrying, “Well, now you know.”

“Have you told Rey yet? She will love knowing she’s not the only Jedi. How Poe?” Rose followed up excitedly.   
A knife twisted in his guts but still a grin came to his face., “No, never got the chance to tell her. She’s been busy with…the everything. I’m going to wait for when she returns. As for Poe, he’s busy I don’t want to distract him.”  
Rose gave a nod of understanding as she meandered energetically in a circle around the apartment, “Poe will always be there for you Finn.”  
“I know, that’s why I haven’t told him yet. He’s a leader now. Other people need him.” The words were bittersweet even as he spoke them. There will be time later he reassured himself.   
“I don’t just want to sit around on this. Rey has already done so much to help restore the Jedi, it’s about time I helped. When she comes back I want to be ready, have something for her to help rebuild the Jedi,” Finn looked meaningfully at Rose, “I need your help. Come with me, we can track down lost Jedi artefacts, maybe even find more people like me and Rey.”  
“That’s a lot to ask Finn,” she replied, looking at him thoughtfully and Finn braced himself for rejection “But it’s about time someone did something for you. I’m in.”  
His heart leapt and the sense of elation he had been enjoying so often now returned. Finn’s face split in a wide smile as he leapt up to hug her.   
“I knew I could count on you,” he thanked her.

“I don’t think there will be much use for an engineer here anyway,” she held onto him comfortingly, “You got an idea where to start?”  
“Plenty, but there’s one I’ve got in mind. I’ve been having dreams about it, I know the Force is telling me to go there.”

His tone was still light despite the sense of dread that stirred beneath the wave of elation. He was under no illusions that it would be an easy journey.   
The apartment’s comm emitted a harsh tone, announcing an incoming message. Finn winced and disentangled himself reluctantly from Rose. He activated the holoprojector and was greeted by the youthful face of a young human woman with short hair and dusky skin. Zay Versio, a fellow Resistance agent. She seemed in a good mood, a little more energy in her lazy grin.   
“Good news,” she reported cheerfully, “It’s about Project: Rebirth- I think we’ve found it.”


	3. Dominator

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Finn is called by the Force to a place steeped in the Jedi tradition- and his own traumatic past...

Finn hung suspended in space, his steady breathing echoing around the inside of his helmet. His space suit was a thin layer of protection between him and the void beyond. Despite this he felt a peace unlike any he had felt in some weeks. This was a new kind of sensation, not the kind of peace that came merely from an absence of fear or even the kind that came with being overwhelmed with joy. This was as if a missing part of him had been returned to gap he had never notice before. Or as if he were a compass needle drawn to magnetic north.

Chunks of debris and ejecta drifted around him, drawn together as the orbit of a nascent asteroid field. Continent sized chunks of rock tumbled lazily against the red and gold glitter of a newborn nebula. Micrometeors darted around at staggering velocities yet somehow he knew none would hit him, even without the need of his suits’ collision detection. He instead allowed his gaze to be fixed at the churning maelstrom before him. The star-like anomaly was young and restless, lashing plumes of flame hundreds of kilometres long. It’s surface coruscated with white atomic fires. In the year that he had last seen it it was already noticeably smaller as it burned through it’s fuel supply. This nova was not supposed to be here and it was as yet uncertain if this testimony to mortal hubris would endure the Galaxy or smoulder away to cosmic embers.

It was almost unbelievable to think it had once been a place that had passed itself as home to him for years. In his minds eye he pictured the debris around him reconstituting itself into a snow world bearing a mechanical scar. He recalled the dull durasteel passages and halls bored through it’s crust, echoes of the simple pleasures and terrible torments he had endured within them. He had known it by a name both grandiose and prosaic at the same time- Starkiller Base. Before that it had carried another name. Ilum.

“You alright out there?” Rose’s voice crackled through the comm, flattened but he could still hear the concern on her voice.

The intrusion tore him from his reverie. He half spun to look back at where he believed her to be. The light transport they had taken was but a tiny pinprick of light a few kilometres behind him at the very edge of the debris field. Right here on the edge of the known galaxy that may be the only tiny bubble o civilisation for parsecs.

“Yeah,” he confirmed, “Everything is going fine.”

“Just checking, according to your readouts your oxygen supply has just passed the 50% mark. Think you will be long out there?”

Finn rolled his tongue around his mouth as he tried to think of what to say, “I’m not sure. I don’t even know why I’m out here, all I know is the Force wants me to be here. I can feel it.”

“My thing is mostly machines so I’m not usually quick to question the Force, but do you need to be in a spacesuit for this?” her scepticism softened by honey added to her voice.

A grin split his face, “Trust me, I’d rather be on the transport too drinking a mug of caf with you but it feels like I’m being carried along. Like on a current or something.”

He stopped to consider again, reviewing what he knew for the hundredth time since they made the long trip to Corsucant. Most of it had come from the little of the Rey’s Jedi texts that he had managed to sneak a look at on Ajen Kloss.

“I remember hearing a First Order officer call this place Ilum once, she didn’t even think I’d hear her drop her guard. I was just another faceless stormtrooper going about his duty. I actually kind of forgot about it or years. Until I saw the name pop up in those old books Rey stole from Skywalker. This place was important to the Jedi once, like a pilgrimage site. It was part of how an apprentice became a Knight.”

The words dried up and he wrinkled his nose in frustration, “I don’t know how exactly, never found that part out. Maybe I need to meditate or something. Like the Force will give me a vision. I’ve just got to trust the Force.”

“I know you’ll get there Finn,” she assured him softly, “But I wanted to check on you too. Not just your oxygen levels but how _you_ are doing. It must be hard coming back here…all that baggage.”

He nodded slowly, his limbs suddenly heavy, “Yeah, it’s not easy. The things I went through here. The hopelessness. The indoctrination to take away my personality. That time I nearly died.”

He made his tone overly casually, trying to pass it off as a joke but he felt the scar across his back where he had been struck by Kylo Ren’s lightsaber tighten. It had healed well under bacta treatment but sometimes he was still hyperaware of its presence, throbbing painlessly and feeling too tight across his skin. It did not quite match that moment of overwhelming sickness he had felt when he thought Rey had been killed, or the hollow sense of despair when his lightsaber had been wrenched from his fingers.

A coldness crept up on him that had nothing to do with the vacuum surrounding him. He was done with being ruled by pain. Finn closed his eyes and reached his perceptions out. He sensed that warm glow of Rose, as strongly as if she were right by his side. Her presence flowed through him, her reassuring strength bolstering him. Reminding him he was far from alone even somewhere like this. A smile melted across his lips.

“But that’s in the past. I’m free now.”

He winced as suddenly another signal forced it’s way through the comms, distorted nearly to a harsh screech but the words were still comprehensible.

“-lhe end of the Republic!”

Fin stiffened as he recognised the all too familiar voice saying the all too familiar words.

“Rose, I think there’s an old transmission still bouncing around out here. Trust that bastard to want his words to keep playing on loop.”

“-of the loathesome Resistance-“ Hux’s madness laced voice answered back.

“Rose?”

Finn cycled through the comm channels trying to reconnect with her but on all frequencies all he could get was the same speech. Irritation burned it’s way down his spine. _Even now they keep getting in my way_. He fought back to the last time he saw Hux standing over him at the hanger bay on the Steadfast and it brought a little satisfaction to ease his annoyance. His tormentor at his feet had somehow stripped away any desire for vengeance. In those moments Finn saw him for what he truly was, a man so wrapped up in his own pettiness that he could not even see how pathetic he was. A blaster shot to the leg was enough to settle the debts the two men had gathered between them. _He was probably dead now_ , Finn processed, _either Kylo Ren didn’t tolerate another failure from him or he went down on the Steadfast when I took out it’s bridge at Exagol_. Another thread binding him to the First Order had been severed.

The tirade reset itself again, looping back from the start. Still no connection back to the transport. It was then that a new voice forced itself into his comms, “FN-2187,” it said, “You dare defile sacred ground?”

The voice was clear and forceful, lacking the same distortion as Hux’s speech. However it was also painfully familiar. He snapped his gaze back and forth trying to look for her, his every instinct going into defensive overdrive. His mind reeled as he tried to process how it could be possible. The last time he had seen her was when she had plunged into the fiery death throws of the Supremacy.

“Show yourself, Phasma,” he barked.

He caught a metallic twinkling in a nearby patch of stellar debris. It resolved itself into a humanoid figure wearing chromed stormtrooper armour modified with a jetpack rig on the back. She was clearly different since the last time they had met, the once pristine armoured was now scorched and blackened by fire and some limbs on closer inspection were not simply armoured but were now mechanical cybernetics. In one fist she grasped the haft of a crackling executioner’s axe. Most notable of all was the rest in her helmet that had been cracked open revealing a prosthetic eye that glowed a baleful red.

“There you are,” she snarled, her jetpack flared to life and hurled her through the void towards him, “Time for the reward a traitor deserves.”

Finn’s throat tightened and his heart quickened. He hit the thrust on his suit and hurled himself aside for the safety of a nearby asteroid thicket. He slammed himself into the safety of a huge rock out of sight of the chromed predator hunting him.

“Why can’t you just die,” Finn called back, “Why can’t you leave me alone.”

A premonition shocked through him and he threw himself down just as the crackling head of the axe bit into the asteroid where he had been mere moments beforehand. He jetted away from his pursuer as quickly as he could, he would just need to worry about his fuel supplies later. For now he needed the distance.

“Do you think you deserve it?” Phasma’s voice dripped with contemptuous amusement. 

Finn gritted his teeth and twisted mid-flight to look at her. Phasma bore down on him like an avenging thunderbolt. He reached out to the Force again, something about it felt different as if a normally tranquil sea were covered in an oil slick. Finn focused himself and pushed through it despite how easy it would have been to be redirected by it. With a wave of his arm he sent one of the asteroids flying. It slammed into Phasma like a run-away speeder and she disappeared from sight.

That was enough space for him to gather himself. He corrected his freefall and hung resolutely. Finn gathered his resolve again. I beat her before I can do it again. Phasma scuttled back into sight, clinging to the surface of the asteroid like a feral predator. Finn stared her down.

“This ends Phasma,” he told her firmly, “I’m not going to run from you anymore. I’m not going to be ruled by that fear anymore. I’m not going to let you hurt me anymore.”

Phasma rose to her feet again, brandishing her axe in an immaculate ready stance. They faced each other again, not as hunter and prey but as warriors.

“I’m not just going to stop at you,” she told him, “I am also going to hurt the Tico girl. We have unfinished business. Then I will make the Galaxy pay for rejecting the peace the First Order offered.”

Finn shook his head, “No, you’re done Phasma. You, the whole First Order. I won’t allow you to hurt anyone else.”

He was unarmed but that wouldn’t stop him. Not when the Force was with him. Not when this was the right thing to do. With all his heart he knew this was the way.

“No!” Phasma shouted back, her voice breaking with desperation.

Finn activated his jets again and hurled himself at her.

The phantom before him melted away under the force of his conviction, her voice echoing into nothingness. He slowed his ascent as he realised what he was witnessing.

“Finn! Finn! Can you hear me?” Rose’s insistent voice returned to his comms again.

“I’m here,” he assured her, “Something came up.”

Words tumbled out of her mouth in relief, “You were delirious. You wouldn’t answer me, just started screaming about Phasma. Do you have a nitrogen leak in your suit?”

“Not nitrogen. I think it was the Force. It was a vision.”

Something else twinkled in the void, coming towards him.

“Or a test,” he added hastily.

“A test? How do you mean?”

The longing that had brought him here seemed to be focused entirely on that glimmer. He reached out with one gloved hand and took it into his grasp. He felt a sense of peace and purpose snap into place. He opened his fist and saw a small blue gem in his hand. He had seen these before in Starkiller Base’s mining operations. He had also seen one in the broken hilt of Rey’s lightsaber. A kyber crystal. Stunned laughter escaped him, a grin splitting his face.

“I’m coming back to the ship, Rose,” he told her, unable to hide his elation, “I will tell you all about it.”

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by creator interviews, unresolved plot threads deleted scenes and unproduced screen plays. This fic aims to flesh out Finn's character and resolve some dangling plot hooks. He is one of my favourite characters from the sequels and I felt his story was left in the shadow of others. Canon is a guide.


End file.
